Way Behind!

Sorry for being so very behind with the blog posts! The plan was to do a couple of big ones full of Christmas Markets, Amsterdam, and Photos, but due to some technical computer difficulties, that's had to be postponed. Hopefully I'll be back up and running (finally) later today, and will get some things up tonight!

T-3 days until I'm back in the States for Christmas!

'Tis the Season

Advent is finally upon us here in good old Deutschland, though honestly had I not been a real resident (with a super fancy electronically-chipped ID card to boot!) I probably would have thought it had begun several weeks ago. Nevertheless, the lights are up and on in the streets, the advent calendars have flown off the shelves, and as our dear friend Ivor reminded us yesterday when he chided our contemplation of premature santa hat purchasing, today, my friends, is December 1st!

We began getting into the festive spirit last weekend with a wonderful jaunt over to Hechingen and Burg Hohenzollern (site of a previous visit and..perhaps even blog post?) to enjoy the Christmas market at the castle. What is a Burg? you may ask. Aren't German castles 'Schloss's? We posed a similar question to our German friend-turned-honorary-Irishwoman Sera, who wasn't exactly sure of the difference either, so we came up with our own explanation. We decided that some of us had heard at some point along the line that a Burg was more of a defensive structure, where as a Schloss can be a big fancy thing that royals spend two days a year in hunting or eating, or whatever it is those royal folk do. In our infinite wisdom, our verdict was that "Burg Hohenzollern" is a Burg that has been 'geschlosst' inside. That is, 'turned into a castle'. This sounds like a makeshift verbal adjective, but with German, it might just fly in a sentence...

Hohenzollern as it stands now is a rebuilt version something perhaps similar to the castle that was originally on the site ages ago, but regardless of which incarnation you're discussing, it's the ancestral seat of the Hohenzollern family (think the Habsburgs, but over this way) and thus basically all Prussian Royalty. The current prince ('prince'...you know...of the Prussia that totally still exists) was even there to officially open the "Royal Christmas Market" and lead us all in song. Rather charming. At any rate....

Ivor was kind enough to drive us all to the castle so we could avoid train business, and he, Josh, Sinead, Sera and I piled in for the jaunt over to the 'foot' of the Swabian Alb (I say 'foot' because it's not much of an 'alb', so there you have it, I said it, I'm sorry, but it's true), quite near to where I teach my English course (the castle, on it's large, wooded hill, is visible from town), for our inaugural Christmas Market of the season. Or if you're me, the inaugural Chritmas Market of your life.

Most exciting for me was being in a car where the steering wheel is on the right-hand side. Everyone naturally thought I was ridiculous, but I'm telling you, serious cultural differences!

It was a beautiful, clear, chilly day, and we forked over our 8 Euro (apparently this also pays for parking?) to get into the castle. Our first stop, after admiring the view several times along the winding cobbled ramp that carries you into the outer courtyard, was for Glühwein at one of the umpteen stands serving the extraordinary concoction. To our surprise, the beverage they handed us was white instead of red, but we discovered, to our delight, you can in fact mull white whine. ("It's white! It smells like Glühwein....but it's white! But it tastes like Glühwein!)

This photo is a bit blurry because I was nudged by an American visitor as I was taking it (damn Americans), but I felt I should have at least one photo with people I actually knew from the visit...

The lower and upper courtyard areas were filled with quaintly constructed wooden booths which housed myriad practical and fanciful wares. The first stand we encountered caught my eye; it held a number of hand-painted tin ornaments that were so wonderful I wanted to bring every single one home. Ever furthering my attempt to be prudent and adult, however, I decided to have a look around the entire market before returning to purchase an ornament. (See Mom, aren't you proud?) We came across everything imaginable; ornaments, jewelry, hot water bottle holders, old books and leather bindings, scarves, candles, dozens of sweets, and even handmade teddy bears. We wandered until it grew dark, took in the opening 'ceremony' and sing-along with the prince himself (it took us a few minutes to recognize him from his newly-printed wedding photo on our previous castle tour), and then, as the wind really began to pick up and the sun was no longer there to protect us, we made our way down the lit path to the first base of large hill and our waiting car. With all of the lights, delicious food, and things to purchase, I'm definitely looking forward to more markets here before I head home for Christmas.

The lower courtyard

My embarassingly blurry photo of the upper courtyard. But as an indication of the market itself, it shall have to do. So many people, so much gentle jostling!

One of the inner halls, full of tables on either side for vendors

The tree in the center of the lower courtyard, finally lit when the sun went down

The castle from behind. Sinead and I were lamenting our lack of fancy cameras to capture the stunning views of the structure, lit from the feet of its walls, as we were making our way down the mountainous hill to head home. Absolutely stunning.